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"To love, and to be loved is the true meaning behind adopting a companion animal", said Yang Yang, co-founder of Beijing Adoption Day, a local charity organization dedicated to promoting animal rights in China.
Under the slogan of "Adopt; Do Not Shop", Beijing Adoption Day (BAD in abbreviation) has been campaigning for such belief in that it is a delightful way of being to provide a sweet home for rescued stray animals, to love and to be generously rewarded with affection and loyalty in return.
Starting from the patio of a residential compound with the participation of a few dozens of passers-by in November, 2011, the charity and its team of volunteers have so far organized 46 off-line events where more than 2,000 rescued stray animals were adopted.
At the meantime, rescuers actively publish information on animals who need a home through BAD's microblog and social media platforms.
"Our ultimate goal is that one day we will no longer need to organize off-line events, that one day the adoption of a companion animal has become a part of every Chinese family's plan by default", told Xinhuanet Chen Jia, another co-founder of BAD.
"... And that nobody needs to about anything when he or she rescues an animal from danger even without the conditions to keep it, for we will be there to help find a home for the rescued", she said, while Yang Yang nodded in agreement.
NOT PITY, LOVE: LOVE IS THE BEST WEAPON Yang Yang and Chen Jia, the two co-founders of BAD, are young, hip, pretty, native Beijing girls. They met in April, 2011, during a massive, self-organized rescue action on the highway connecting Beijing with Harbin, where a large number of civilian volunteers gathered to stop a thief truck from shipping hundreds of stolen dogs from being butchered and resold back into meat market illegally.
Chen Jia remembered Yang Yang as a skinny, fashionable young woman who had lost her voice shouting to coordinate the rescue; to Yang Yang, Chen Jia gave the first impression of an exhausted, yet fierce fighter who had stayed in the veterinarian's clinic taking care of the rescued dogs, without sleeping or eating for days.
Hundreds of dogs were saved that day. Then what?
Some dogs with implanted chips were sent back to reunite with their families, but what would happen to the rest?
To stop the crime-in-motion and save lives was certainly crucial, and the next step would be even more important: To cure the wounded and the sick, to find them a refuge to recover, and to find these once beloved companion animals a new home where they could be cared for again.
There arose the idea of Beijing Adoption Day.
Chen Jia recalled the cold, grey November of 2011, when a few friends and she held the first edition of the event.
They had 30 dogs rescued from some meat , waiting to find a warm home for the winter, or they would be sent to a farm house to live a lonely, loveless life.
Chen Jia wrote a lengthy flyer of 10,000 words, in an almost desperate effort to explain to people the benefits of having a companion animal, and the heavy reward they would get if they could give love.
On that day, only one dog was adopted, by one of the volunteers that helped arrange the occasion.
